March 8, 2014

America and Russia — described via Drudgetaposition.



Rand Paul's hand expresses a government by reason and deliberation — law — and Vladimir Putin's chokehold says: Government by brute force.

39 comments:

chickelit said...

It also represents potential vs. extant reality, given that Rand Paul doesn't lead the free world.

So, better add this to the mix for world leader hand gestures.

Michael K said...

We have the best way to make Putin pay for this action but Obama won't do it.

Drill, baby, Drill..

And teach others how to do it, including Ukraine. The pipelines to Europe already exist.

Unknown said...

R.P. causes me to have to remind myself that electoral politics is a sham, that the fix is in and has been for longer than I've been alive, that the idea that if only we could get the right man elected things would be ok is a fool's game and, in fact, the most recent buch of fools to have been played in this way are the dupes of the vandal currently in the white house.

I think I'd vote for Paul anyway. I've got a lottery ticket too, after all. So why not?

The Crack Emcee said...

You left out Michelle's frosted hair - what does that mean?

Chef Mojo said...

You left out Michelle's frosted hair - what does that mean?

Obviously, cultural appropriation.

garage mahal said...

It's like Obama is playing checkers and Putin is a strong and powerful bad-ass please fuck my wife in front of me. I mean chess.

harrogate said...

garage,

Nice translation.

somefeller said...

Maybe conservatives can try to amend the Constitution so Putin can run for President here. They certainly seem to be swooning over him these days.

Michael K said...

" They certainly seem to be swooning over him these days."

No, just swooning over what the left has done to us.

There were Frenchmen who felt this way in 1940.

Birkel said...

chickenlittle:

That was exactly where my mind turned when reading Professor Althouse's comments.

Putin gives the finger to Obama. Obama gives the finger to America.

furious_a said...

They certainly seem to be swooning over him these days.

Like Obama, who seems to like being Putin's bitch.

Anonymous said...

There were Frenchmen who felt this way in 1940.

Petain and Laval, to name just two. Not much of a recommendation.

Birkel said...

The swoon comments are fascinating.

Please tell us how creases in the pants of the current president make you feel. If I'm going to properly swoon I'm going to need lessons.

Also, please tell us how you felt in 2008 when Obama was going to lower the oceans. That must've been one hell of a swoon.

Also, since all I want anybody to do is leave me the hell alone and get off my damned lawn I'm unsure why I (or any conservative) would swoon for an authoritarian who wants centralized power for his own aggrandizement.

Please tell us how that felt when you wanted Obama to take over one-sixth of the US economy.

Idiots.

somefeller said...

Also, since all I want anybody to do is leave me the hell alone and get off my damned lawn I'm unsure why I (or any conservative) would swoon for an authoritarian who wants centralized power for his own aggrandizement.

Ask Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee. Based on recent comments, they respectively seem impressed that Putin, in addition to being anti-Obama (and thus doing something right), wrestles bears and takes his shirt off. Or do I have them reversed?

garage mahal said...

I'm not unusually attracted to Vladimir. It's not sexual at all. It has nothing to do with him leading troops into battle shirtless. I just respect him. That's it. I just wish Obama was like him in every way imaginable. And I mean *every* way. If, ya know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

Shirltless Putin really does seem to make conservatives all excited, doesn't it? What this indicates to me is that they lust after a totalitarian regime in their heart of hearts. A white KGB agent's strength appeals to them, while a half black liberal President leaves them limp. So many emotions swilling around inside them.

Anonymous said...

Dang Garage, you've been hanging around these clowns for too long. ;) I get you though. Maybe the next Democratic President will have balls so big she'll have to cart them around in a wheelbarrow.

furious_a said...

I don't know about swooning, but Vlad (may I call you Vlad) gives me a thrill up my leg. He's a sort of God.

I pledge to be a servant to the President.

Because together we can...together we are...

Hagar said...

Mr. Nixon's Justice Dept. prosecuted Watergate, and some people went to jail.
Mr. Clinton's Justice Dept. prosecuted Whitewater, and some people went to jail.

At this point, I think Lois Lerner could get up on the table and moon the House Oversight Committee, and Mr. Obama's Justice Dept. will not prosecute.

So, what can Congress do? Vote to not fund the Justice Dept.?
What if the Treasury pays them anyway?
What do we have then?

furious_a said...

So many emotions swilling around inside them.

Inga She-Dope-of-the-SS is projecting again. Must be the hormone imbalance.

Rusty said...

Michael K said...
"We have the best way to make Putin pay for this action but Obama won't do it.

Drill, baby, Drill.."

Place the missile defense shields we already promised Poland and Czechoslovakia.
Put a guided missile frigate in the black sea.

lemondog said...

Government by brute force.

He is also using drones?

Michael K said...

"There were Frenchmen who felt this way in 1940.

Petain and Laval, to name just two. Not much of a recommendation."

Actually, it is interesting to see you choose the two Fascists who, like Obama, were willing to lose the war if it meant not joining with the opposition, like Reynaud and Leon Blum.

There's a good book about the rescue of the French patriots at the end of the war as the SS was trying to assassinate them. They had been imprisoned by the Vichy regime.

madAsHell said...

You left out Michelle's frosted hair - what does that mean?

Imagine the faux outrage if Condi Rice has done the same.

somefeller said...

Actually, it is interesting to see you choose the two Fascists who, like Obama, were willing to lose the war if it meant not joining with the opposition, like Reynaud and Leon Blum.

Actually, it is interesting because the pro-Putin swooning is coming mostly from the Right these days. For some, better Putin than Obama for reasons I won't speculate on, I guess. But thanks for favorably citing a good social democrat like Blum.

Heyooyeh said...

You're an idiot, Althouse.

Drago said...

somefeller: "Actually, it is interesting because the pro-Putin swooning is coming mostly from the Right these days."

Putin manipulated the Syrian situation that obama/Kerry screwed up so that the influence of the US is non-existent there and the Russians are in the catbird seat in terms of relationships with Assad Baathist regime.

Further, this new Russian/Syrian relationship puts the lie to the obama's claim of success in getting the Syrians to give up their WMD (and just where DID those WMD come from again?....)

Putin follows this up with an easily predictable soviet-like action toward a neighboring state which catches obama/kerry flat footed.

As the entire world press has noted.

lefties response?

Well, what can they say.

Given this level of ineptitude they, once again, MUST change the subject.

I suppose their latest "squirrel" and obfuscations are the best they could come up with on such short notice.

90% of Russian natural gas exports get to Europe thru pipelines in the Ukraine.

That alone guarantees that the Russians with their leftover Soviet/KGB leadership (which the left has always adored) will inevitably make a destabilization/incursion scenario come to realization.

Just a matter of time now.

Now we know precisely what obama meant when he told the Russians he would have more "flexibility" after his election.

Illuninati said...

Freedom and the rule of law sound good. Rand Paul sounds like a classical liberal. We need to hear more to know for sure but so far so good.

Obama's foreign policy has been a failure in many ways, but so far I like Obama's approach to the Crimea crisis. Make a lot of noise to appear that we are on the right side and leave Putin alone. If there is a fair plebiscite in which the people of Crimea vote to join Russia its hard to justify using force against them to make them remain with the Ukraine.




Drago said...

illuninati: "If there is a fair plebiscite in which the people of Crimea vote to join Russia its hard to justify using force against them to make them remain with the Ukraine."

The Ukrainian population is about 9 times that of the Georgian nation which makes the Russians Ukrainian options much more problematic than when they smashed the little Georgian state.

Which is precisely why they will attempt to absorb Ukraine in piecemeal fashion.

It also therefore presents many opportunities for the US and the West to aid the Ukraine in ways that might, might, make it a "losing" proposition for the Russians to attempt to annex.

I do believe that some members of this admin now realize that their insults about "the 1980's wanting Romney's foreign policy back" have now been completely overwhelmed by the 1970's calling obama and wanting it's foreign policy back.

There are enough folks in positions of power who understand the threat and can devise ways to stand up to it.

But will obama let them?

As far as we can see, he still actually believes that his spoken words alone can dissuade your standard issue totalitarian thugs.

I'm not sure the experts can overcome obama's narcissism however.

As has been relayed by those close to obama, obama certainly believes he can do everyone's jobs better than they can.



Michael K said...

"Actually, it is interesting because the pro-Putin swooning is coming mostly from the Right these days. For some, better Putin than Obama for reasons I won't speculate on, I guess. But thanks for favorably citing a good social democrat like Blum."

I'm not surprised that you misunderstand. Your devotion to Obama requires that you do so and try to change the subject when his policies fail.

Will you ever get tired of defending failure ?

"Communism has never really been tried."

Birkel said...

Somefeller:

When your best retort is to mention Sarah Palin, when it was this president who said Russia is not a geopolitical threat, well... God bless your heart.

And to attempt to define Mike Huckabee as a conservative is comical.

You Leftists love centralized authority. You Leftists love centralized power. And here you are trying to these readers... Of what?

Cedarford said...

Energy cutoff is a good weapon. Or at least one that requires the targets to cave or go to war, as Japan did against the Brits, America, and the Dutch over oil, rubber, and metal supplies.

Vlad knows the tactic works, and has correctly judged the skwawking Euroweenies will not go to war, and will cave.

In the middle of this, never to waste a good opportunity, corporate interests are lobbying to frack more and lift all export restrictions on oil and gas so the "magic" of free markets for Freedom Lovers can work. Instead of cheaper energy and new jobs created here by cheap energy...better American oil and gas go to "our dear Green friends" in Europe and in so doing, keep US energy prices jacked up and high profits going to a small group of energy producers.

Anonymous said...

Laval was the only major member of the Vichy gang I can think of who could fairly be described as "fascist" pre-1940; I believe the others were all ordinary Catholic conservatives who were swooning over what they believed the left had done to their country. (And when it came to the French Communists at least, they had a case.)

somefeller said...

And to attempt to define Mike Huckabee as a conservative is comical.

The people who handle speakers invitations at CPAC seem to be fine with defining him as a conservative. Perhaps you can send them a complaint letter? But I defer to your expertise on being comical.

David Davenport said...

In the middle of this, never to waste a good opportunity, corporate interests are lobbying to frack more and lift all export restrictions on oil and gas so the "magic" of free markets for Freedom Lovers can work. Instead of cheaper energy and new jobs created here by cheap energy

But wouldn't more fracking in USA create more jobs here?


...better American oil and gas go to "our dear Green friends" in Europe and in so doing, keep US energy prices jacked up and high profits going to a small group of energy producers.


So, Progressive Mr. Cedarwood is now a chauvinistic nationalist and industrial protectionist?

Michael K said...

The left is having an increasingly hard time defending the Obama policies. Hence the squirrel calls.

"The people who handle speakers invitations at CPAC seem to be fine with defining him as a conservative."

The conservative movement is turning to libertarians like Rand Paul. The CPAC crowd tended to be young and were very enthusiastic about him. The more attractive he looks, the more the left will attack him.

Huckabee is a very well spoken social conservative whose day in the GOP is over. He knows it and is making a good living pretending he is still a factor. Santorum is less intelligent and still thinks he has a chance, but he is also history.

The global warming alarmists are the crazy uncles of the Democrats. They are more powerful in that party than the creationists are in the GOP. The creationists are pretty harmless except to Republicans in elections but we know that. Todd Akin was supported by Claire McCaskill, not Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is more libertarian in spite of her own religious convictions. She will still be around in 10 years. Huckabee and Santorum won't be.

Drago said...

Somefeller: "The people who handle speakers invitations at CPAC seem to be fine with defining him as a conservative."

Ugh.

Look, I get what people are saying about Huckabee being a conservative.

He does have very large government interventionist tendencies (both in terms of policy and rhetoric) beyond the social issues.

However, I do think you can say that a rough order of magnitude approach would put him, in aggregate, on the right side of the spectrum.

Not to worry.

He's not really a contender. Too much of the base is suspicious of that larger government tendency.

Drago said...

So, yes, in my previous post, I would have to say that somefeller is more correct, on points, that Huckabee belongs, broadly, on the right.

Whew.

I don't think I could possibly work any more caveats (implied and otherwise) into that statement!

Rusty said...


In the middle of this, never to waste a good opportunity, corporate interests are lobbying to frack more and lift all export restrictions on oil and gas so "the "magic" of free markets for Freedom Lovers can work. Instead of cheaper energy and new jobs created here by cheap energy...better American oil and gas go to "our dear Green friends" in Europe and in so doing, keep US energy prices jacked up and high profits going to a small group of energy producers."

Someone else unsure on the concept of "markets".